


Family is What You Make It

by Lora_Blackmane



Category: Di-Gata Defenders
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26506432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lora_Blackmane/pseuds/Lora_Blackmane
Summary: Several snippets from the Defender's dojo.
Kudos: 2





	1. Midnight Talks

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Di-Gata Defenders day y'all.

Erik was silently working on his latest upgrade to his gauntlet when he heard his door open.

"Hey, Erik…?" 

He turned his head towards the door, where Rion was standing. He refused to look at him and was shifting his weight as he rubbed his arm. Erik got up and walked over to him, "You have a bad dream, bud?" 

Rion nodded. Erik assumed so considering it was still nighttime, but he always asked anyway. "Do you want to talk about it?" 

He quickly shook his head no.

Erik expected that too. "Well, if you want to stay here until you feel better your chair's open. I'm going to work on this upgrade, okay?" 

He nodded and walked over to the chair sitting to the side near his desk, pulling it away until it was next to Erik's own. He fell into it easily, and quickly got distracted when it started to turn. As Erik fell into his own chair he watched Rion hit the ground with his feet making the chair spin faster and faster - breathless laughter joining the sound of screws being unscrewed and stones being shifted. 

Eventually he stopped, and curled up in the chair as he watched Erik work. After a few moments Rion asked, "What are you adding?"

Erik didn't even look up as he put some chords in their proper place. "I'm upgrading the BackSplasher so it can take energy and I can choose whether that energy is sent back as an attack or used to make another shield." 

" _ Cool. _ "

"I think so too little buddy." Rion didn't complain about the nickname for once, which worried him, but he knew from experience he wouldn't say anything until he was ready so he continued. "And it'll be pretty useful to be able to get a new shield up fast during a fight." 

"...You make a lot of useful stuff, huh? The BackSplasher, Seth's Mech-arm, these chairs, even that mechanical toothbrush you showed us last week." 

He smiled at that. “Most people would probably think that those last few are stupid.”

"No they aren't! I bet someone could find a use for them, or it'd help them. Your inventions could probably help a lot of people - even these chairs! …I'm not sure how, but I bet they could." 

He let out a laugh at the kid's proclamation and ruffled his hair, "Thanks for the vote of confidence kid." 

The kid pushed his hand away with a laugh, but quickly became serious again. "...Hey Erik, what do you think you're going to do after the Ethos are defeated? I mean, I know you guys are going to continue to be defenders, but that isn't a full time job right? None of us really get paid for it, I know that… Mel was talking about it yesterday." 

Erik flinched at that final part, knowing Mel didn't like to let them know when things were struggling. The kid was right, none of them were paid - all of their money was scraped together from the meager amount they found in the vault and the occasional gift from a village they helped (or Adam's thieving. Mel might not have noticed their sneakiest member occasionally adding to their coffers, but Erik had one night while he was working in the kitchen). He scratched his head as he silently admitted, "I don't know kid… but I know as long as we stick together we'll be okay."

He wasn't sure if Rion had heard the last part as he spoke, "...I think you’d have a pretty good job as an engineer or building prosthetics or mobility aids. You've made some amazing stuff after all." He lifted one of his hands with a smile as he said it, then dropped it as he continued. "There's a lot of people out there like Seth right? People who've lost arms or legs or eyes. You could easily find work building stuff like that if you wanted, just like Mel could be the next leader of the wizards or Seth could be a teacher. Even Adam probably has something in his future." 

He thought about it for a second. The kid was right, there were probably hundreds of people in RaDos who could use things like the Mech-Arm he built for Seth or Power Boots like Kara's. He wasn't sure if he would be completely comfortable taking money for them, maybe a small amount to cover more obscure parts, but it wasn't a bad idea. "Yeah, I guess I could. ...What's with the talk about the future kid, something about it on your mind?" 

"You could say that…" A yawn escaped him before he could finish his thought.

Erik laughed, "Seems like all this talking tired you out! ...But seriously, are you feeling better Rion?"

"Yeah, yeah I think so." He jumped out of his chair and walked towards the door. "Goodnight, Erik." 

"Goodnight, kid." He turned back to his work as he waved goodbye to the kid and quickly fell back into his work. 

It didn't hit him until long after he had left, when he finally went to bed, that Rion hadn't added himself at any point in their talk about the future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't go look at this piece from Romeo that partially inspired this it's fabulous https://kindestegg.tumblr.com/post/628382625083654144/lineart-commission-of-erik-and-rion-for
> 
> No, I don't think Rion has any thoughts about what he wants to do after the war with the Ethos. Kid might have been mostly shielded by T'zur, but he was still under Alnar's influence and that f-er legit sent all of them to die - TWICE. He clearly raised Rion to die and that had to have f-ed him up at least a bit (and it clearly did if you listen to what he says in the final 2 episodes - kid legit said he was only created for one thing and saw himself as a failure when he realized the sigil stopped him from doing so and had a full on mental breakdown that lasted almost 2 solid episodes). 
> 
> Anyway f Alnar as usual.


	2. Stressed

Seth let out a shout as water splashed onto him from above the door he opened, soon followed by a bucket. Seth could feel anger bubble within his chest over the prank - something that didn't happen as often as most would think. _Frustration_ is what he usually felt over pranks - unless they interrupted his routine perimeter check, like this one had. Those, _those_ he **hated** . And it couldn't have chosen a worse day to happen - he was already barely holding in his emotions after Rion skipped training _again!_

His seething became worse when he heard laughter from within the room. "Enjoyed your prank, Rion?"

"How do you know _I_ put that there? Just because I found it funny doesn't mean I did it, y'know." 

His frustration over the kid's denial only made his temper thin more. "Who _else_ would put that there?!" 

"Adam? You walk the same route every day, it wouldn't be hard for him to notice and set it up to annoy you." 

Seth leveled a glare at the kid. "Adam left the dojo last week, Rion. Try again."

Rion returned a glare of his own. "You've already made up your mind, so why should I?! Go ahead, punish me already - take away another thing from me, why don't you!"

Seth opened his mouth to reply - 

"Is something going on?" 

Mel walked into the room, confused. He turned to her, ready to explain what had happened, when Rion stormed past them. 

"Hey, I wasn't done-"

Mel's hand rested on his shoulder for just a moment, and he paused as she squeezed it before she took her hand away. "How about I talk to Rion while you go see Erik? He asked me to get you anyway - said something about wanting to talk to you." 

He let out a sigh, "Okay. Good luck with that Mel." He let out a snort, "Hopefully he doesn't have any more water buckets."

Mel laughed as she walked away, "I'm sure I'll be fine! I think you're the only one he'll be targeting with his bucket wrath."

He rolled his eyes and started to walk to Erik's bedroom, where he had been cooped up the past few days when he wasn't training or on a mission. 

"Hey Erik, what did you want to talk about?" He asked as he entered the room. 

Erik looked up from the gauntlet upgrade he was working on, tilting his head. "Nothing I think…" He sat silently for a second before shaking his head. "Yeah I got nothing, why?"

"Mel said you wanted to talk about something."

"Were you upset?" 

"Yeah? ...Oh." Seth slapped his forehead as he realized what had happened. He could hear Erik laugh and moved towards his bed, sitting on it as he'd done many times before. He didn't talk though, not until he calmed down a little more. After taking a deep breath he started, "I don't understand the kid." 

"Who Rion?"

"Yes!" He got up and started to pace as the words burst out of him. "I don't get it! Why does he feel the need to pull pranks or skip training - it's like he doesn't take _anything_ seriously! Would it hurt him to act even a single stone shard serious?”

Erik let out a long sigh, putting down his gauntlet as he did so. "Honestly...? I'm not really surprised he's acting out." 

Seth paused. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it - these past months haven't really been… the nicest to the kid. He lost his teacher, he's been turned into a guardian, he's gotten injured a _lot_ \- hell he's only been out of his bed for about a month now since his last major injury. And now…" Erik tapped his forehead, where Rion's center stone sat, the stone that now held the restraining sigil after the incident from last week, before turning back to his work. "So yeah, he's probably dealing with these issues the only way he can now - lashing out. It's not like he grew up like we did - we might not enjoy talking through things, but we still do it occasionally like we're doing now. Because we feel comfortable with each other, we grew up together. Rion… I'm pretty sure Tzur was the only person he knew before he moved in with us. And he's more emotional than us, and even _I'm_ terrible at handling that sometimes." 

"I… don't think I'm following." 

"Look, Seth… me, you, and Mel? We grew up not showing our emotions as much as Rion does. And considering how much he trusts Brackus I wouldn't say he's good at judging other's intentions well - he goes by the surface, the emotions he sees. Who would you feel more comfortable talking to, just by how I describe the two - someone who yells at you often or someone who seems to doesn't and often speaks kindly to you?"

Seth had to give him that. He and Rion butted heads often, on basically anything from how to deal with Brackus to who got the last apple. But he never thought of it being more then the fights he had with Erik when something blew up or when they had been kids. He just thought they’d wash over him - and they sort of did, after an hour or so it’d be like nothing happened. 

But based on the fact he didn’t feel comfortable enough to talk to him… maybe he should try a different approach. He wasn’t sure _what_ that approach would be, but he’d try. “I’ll think about then. Thanks, Erik.” 

"No problem dude! What did he do by the way?" 

"It was one of those stupid bucket pranks again."

Erik looked up again, " _Really_?" 

"Yeah, why do you sound so confused?"

"Because I don't think anyone's seen the bucket since Adam left." He scratched the back of his head before saying, "I think Rion came looking for it an hour ago, actually. Said that Mel had put him on cleaning duty."

“Oh… I should probably go apologize to him, huh?”

“Yep.” Erik popped the ‘p’ sound as he picked up the gauntlet, examining it closely. “Or you can wait for him to get back at you for blaming him for Adam’s prank.”

Seth rolled his eyes as he headed to the door. “He’s not going to pull one until at least tomorrow. He’s talking with Mel-!”

A bucket fell on his head, splashing him with freezing cold water. He heard two sets of footsteps run away as laughter filled the hallway, fading with the footsteps as the perpetrators ran. He let out a sigh as he headed to his room to get a new change of clothes, but not before leveling a glare at Erik who started laughing at him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone deserves a chance to mess with Seth.


	3. Shifting

It had been Mel who noticed early on how Rion would fidget and become easily set off when they all stayed in the dojo for extended periods of time. It didn't take long for it to happen and Rion never said anything about it, but it was easy to notice when he'd hit that point. His and Seth's arguments would become more explosive, when he came to relax with her and Erik he wouldn't be able to sit still, and don't even think about trying to assign him something to read because invariably he'd end up forgetting and you'd find him playing with his gloves or Arvengus in an entirely different room than the one you'd put him in ten minutes ago. Mel had no idea how T'zur had even been able to teach him some days, considering from what Rion had told them the day the Megalith had been released had been his first time outside of the ruins… until she started to notice some little habits of his.

Like how if one of them asked one of the others about a wizard artifact they were examining Rion would burst out with info about it if he recognized it, or how sometimes when he was sitting with them he would take out his stones and start playing with those instead, throwing them up into the air and catching them - repeatedly doing so in a circular motion. He always seemed to fidget and move a little less afterward… as long as he didn't accidentally cast them while doing so. When he did he had a harder time keeping still, and the argument that would pop up between him and whichever one of them found the mess first was even worse than the ones about his nicknames. Or how sometimes she'd find him in his room redoing the same stitching over and over again, removing them when he'd find something wrong and becoming more upset over it - even if it was something so minuscule as one stitch being a hair width off.

It reminded her of how Erik would get when he thought of a new project while they were gone and couldn't work on it - yet his hands would move as if they were or just started opening and closing rapidly when they stopped for the night. Or how Seth would walk the same route every morning to check on things and would get inexplicably upset if something interrupted him or stopped him from doing so. Rion reminded her of how they were when they were younger, before they all found ways of helping the others and found their routines; but it was clear without T'zur his routine (if he ever had one) needed to be revised. 

It didn't seem like the others would catch on or try to help him adjust anytime soon… 

So Mel helped him adapt. After the second time he accidentally casted them by doing this Mel bought him some small bags of sand to juggle instead. She was careful about introducing them to him, remembering how affronted he had been when that woman in Maudata had tried to sell him a toy. Then again it could have just been because she called him a kid, but nevertheless Mel wasn't going to take that chance. She pulled them out one day when they were in the library and tried to mimic the motion she'd seen him do before. 

She wasn't very good at it, but she wasn't trying to be - she was trying to get Rion to notice them. And after her third attempt he did, offering to help her by showing her how to do it. She agreed easily, handing the bags over. He quickly fell back into the motions she'd seen him do so many times and soon forgot about her. After a few minutes he wandered back to where he had been sitting near the bookshelves and sat down, continuing to throw them as he did so. Erik opened his mouth to call him back, but stopped when Mel put up her hand and shook her head. He ended up taking them back to his room that day, and when he tried to give them back later she had told him to keep them - stating she wasn't as interested in learning the game anymore. 

After that it was easy to introduce new things to his routine. Mel started to do her own sewing outside of her room occasionally and one day asked Rion if he'd like to join her after he returned from training with holes in his cape by offering him a needle and some thread, which he accepted. He sat on the couch after removing his cape and together they sewed silently, occasionally giving each other pointers or ideas for the other's project. It wasn't something they did every week, Mel still needed time to herself and sometimes just wanted to work on her project in solitude, but it was often enough she was able to show him how to sew things besides clothing. 

The night he showed her his first completed plush, inspired by Draykor, she felt pride swell up within her like a tidal wave. And she definitely did _not_ cry when he gave it to her before running off to start his next project. 

When the others _finally_ caught onto what she was doing they adapted as well. Seth started to train him occasionally outside of the dojo - citing the kid needed to learn how to figure out what's dangerous in the forest and how to do recon properly, and because he learned better through a more hands on approach it'd be better if they did it with examples. Erik would occasionally take things from the vault, artifacts he confirmed with her that weren't too dangerous, and would ask Rion about them. The kid would take them from his hand and start to ramble about their properties as Erik worked, occasionally asking questions and nodding at the right times to keep Rion talking until he ran out of steam. 

Things slowly calmed down around the dojo as they all adjusted to his beat and he did to theirs, as they had done for each other when they were younger… but that didn't mean all issues had just magically vanished.

Like, just as an example, the times she'd find him in the vault.

"Rion?" 

He was sitting on the ground of the dojo's vault and looked up from the stone he was holding, which was glowing dangerously within his palms. He didn't even seem concerned as he asked, "Yeah?" 

"May I ask what that stone is?" 

"Well at first I thought it was an Eternity Stone, but now I think it's a Shifting Stone."

Mel sat down next to him as she asked, "Oh really? Why is it called that?" 

"Well it's original name was Blue Stone, because they glow blue when activated, but the wizard's renamed it to the name most books have it as now due to the fact that during the beginning of the war against Nazmul they were used as explosives because of the fact they're easily made unstable if you shift too much pressure onto them-" 

Mel interrupted him, trying desperately not to let panic slip into her voice as she asked, "So it _is_ activated right now?" 

"Yep! In fact it's been activated for… I think 30 years. That's when the drawer said it was put in there - then again it was pretty broken. That's why I took it out actually, it couldn't tell me what it was so I thought I'd check it. I didn't realize it was on until it almost took out my hand." 

"Okay. Okay, we can work with that." She let a deep breath before continuing, "First things first, I need you to hand me the stone-" 

"Can't." 

"Why not?" 

"Because it's activated of course. If I shift it too much it'll blow up, that's why I've been sitting here." 

"I thought only shifting the pressure on it caused that."

He nodded slightly, "Usually, but the energy of this one feels unstable. If you cast a disabling spell on it though it should calm down." 

"Alright then, stay still." Rion nodded slightly. She pointed her hands towards him, letting the sigil energy course through as she spoke. " _Yanis. Sum._ **_Altas._ **" 

She repeated the spell's words as a bubble appeared in front of her hands slowly growing until it enveloped the Shifting Stone. Once it did so the energy quickly got swallowed by the stone, and it glowed white for a second before the shine vanished - leaving a slightly see through grey stone in his hands. Mel scooped it up from his hands as she got up. "That was so cool, Mel! How do you do that? I always hear you say the same words for-" 

"It's about the intent, Rion." She interrupted, "And now that that's over… Seth was looking for you. He said you guys were doing Di Gata training today, you probably shouldn't keep him waiting."

Rion let out an exaggerated groan before running off towards the training grounds, and she felt a laugh escape her. Mel placed the stone in a different drawer before locking it's old drawer off, making a note to tell Seth she'd be checking the vault drawers tomorrow to find out if anymore were broken… and she was definitely changing the password. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me @ all the Defenders: none of these bois be neurotypical. Also check out this cool piece that inspired the ending of this chapter from Poobit https://poobit.tumblr.com/post/628378377412329472/sprite-commission-of-melosa-and-rion-for


End file.
